On a Lanchester Combat Model

Abstract

Theory of combat has to do with the destruction of enemy forces. Most models are descriptive in the sense that they are not built to optimize any particular tactical decision. These models use differential equations and simply describe how the numbers of the opposites forces involved will fluctuate with time, generally decreasing until one or more battle termination criterions are met. After Lanchester, who examined air combat situations during World War I, many researchers studied several models. In this short note we present in brief some of these models and a model using reinforcement.